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Fought between China and Japan over control of Korea. Japan’s modern, Western-style military quickly defeated China’s outdated forces on land and at sea. China’s loss forced it to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, giving Japan control of Taiwan and recognising Korea as independent (which let Japan dominate it soon after). The defeat exposed Qing weakness and encouraged reform movements within China.
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The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China.
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After China fell into warlordism following 1916, the KMT and CCP formed the First United Front in 1923 to reunify the country and end warlord control. With Soviet support, they launched the Northern Expedition (1926–1927), successfully defeating or absorbing many warlords and restoring nominal national unity. However, once the campaign succeeded, tensions resurfaced, leading to Chiang Kai-shek’s 1927 purge of the CCP, which ended cooperation and triggered the Chinese Civil War.
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It was Lenin’s overthrow of the weak Provisional Government, carried out by the Bolsheviks through a nearly bloodless uprising in Petrograd. It replaced liberal rule with a new Soviet, socialist government claiming to represent workers and soldiers. The revolution marked a decisive break from Russia’s old political order and began the creation of a communist state.
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A student-led protest in Beijing against the Versailles Treaty’s decision to give Shandong to Japan sparked nationwide demonstrations. It became a wider cultural and intellectual movement rejecting traditionalism and promoting modern ideas like science, democracy, and vernacular writing. It also encouraged the spread of Marxism and helped catalyse China’s political modernisation.
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Founded in 1921 when a small group of Chinese intellectuals, inspired by the May Fourth Movement and the spread of Marxism, met in Shanghai and later on a boat in Jiaxing to avoid police surveillance. Guided initially by figures like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the CCP emerged as a revolutionary party focused on anti-imperialism, social reform, and organising workers. Its birth marked the start of a new political force that would eventually reshape China’s modern history.
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CCP and KMT against warlords
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He dies, leaving the Kuomintang (KMT) without its original unifying leader. Chiang Kai-shek comes to power.
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In 1927, during the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly turned against the CCP. He ordered mass arrests and killings of Communists in KMT-controlled cities, especially in the Shanghai Massacre. This violent purge ended the First United Front and destroyed cooperation between the two parties, triggering the start of the full Chinese Civil War.
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His government became corrupt, inefficient, and authoritarian, which reduced public trust.
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CCP established several rural soviets (self-governing Communist base areas) in southern and central China, the most important was the Jiangxi Soviet under Mao Zedong. These soviets created their own government, land reform policies and Red Army forces. They served as safe zones for CCP survival and expansion, but were repeatedly targeted by Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT through a series of encirclement campaigns. The fall of the Jiangxi Soviet in 1934 forced the CCP to retreat, beginning the Long March.
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Chiang Kai-shek launched five Extermination Campaigns to wipe out the CCP and the Red Army in their rural bases. The CCP survived by using guerrilla tactics, avoiding direct battles, and constantly moving. While these tactics kept the Red Army alive, KMT forces often destroyed villages and caused the death or starvation of over a million peasants, which deepened rural resentment toward the KMT and increased support for the CCP.
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In 1931, Japan staged the Mukden Incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria, quickly occupying the region and setting up the puppet state of Manchukuo under the last Qing emperor, Puyi. China was too weak and divided to resist effectively, and the League of Nations failed to stop Japan. The invasion showed the weakness of both the KMT government and international peace systems, and it encouraged further Japanese aggression in China.
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It was Chiang Kai-shek’s most serious attempt to destroy the CCP’s Jiangxi Soviet. Unlike earlier campaigns, he used a new tactic advised by German military advisers: building blockhouse lines to slowly surround and cut off the CCP. This strategy worked, as the Red Army could no longer escape or rely on guerrilla warfare. With supplies exhausted and territory shrinking, the CCP was forced to abandon the Jiangxi Soviet in 1934, beginning the Long March.
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The CCP’s strategic retreat to escape destruction after the Fifth Extermination Campaign. About 80,000 Red Army soldiers left the Jiangxi Soviet and marched over 9,000 kilometres across difficult terrain while constantly pursued by KMT forces. Only a fraction survived. The march was a military defeat but a political victory: it allowed the CCP to reach safety in Yan’an and strengthened Mao Zedong’s leadership within the party.
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It emerged after the Xi’an Incident (December 1936), when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to agree to cooperate with the CCP. Formal cooperation began in 1937, after Japan launched a full invasion, marking the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
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Began after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Japan launched a full invasion, capturing key cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing, where it committed the Nanjing Massacre. China—led by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and supported by Communist resistance forces—continued fighting. Japan’s defeat in 1945 ended the conflict. The war devastated China but significantly weakened the KMT and strengthened the CCP, shaping the balance of power ahead of the resumed civil war.
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After the KMT and CCP formed the Second United Front to resist Japan (1937), tensions continued. In January 1941, Chiang Kai-shek ordered an attack on the Communist New Fourth Army, destroying it. This New Fourth Army Incident is considered Chiang’s second major betrayal, as it effectively ended real cooperation and reopened full hostility between the CCP and KMT even before the war with Japan ended.
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In the 1942 Yan’an Talks on Literature and Art, Mao argued that culture must serve politics and help advance the Communist revolution. He insisted that writers and artists should abandon personal expression and instead create works that educated the masses and promoted Party ideology. This belief became the foundation of CCP cultural policy, shaping later campaigns by enforcing the idea that art existed to support political goals, not individual creativity.
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The United States and the Soviet Union pressured the CCP and KMT to agree to a temporary truce to prevent China from falling into full civil war after Japan’s surrender. Although talks began, mistrust remained deep, and both sides kept expanding their armies and territories. The truce quickly collapsed, and by 1946, large-scale fighting resumed, marking the start of the full Chinese Civil War.
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The Civil War resumed in 1946 when Chiang Kai-shek launched a major offensive to destroy the CCP before the PLA became too strong. Although the KMT received large amounts of US aid, it suffered from corruption, low troop morale, and weakening public support. In contrast, the CCP expanded rapidly through effective land reform and strong peasant mobilisation, which increased its manpower and legitimacy.
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After the CCP settled in Yan’an, the Red Army was reorganised into the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to create a more disciplined and unified military force. This restructuring improved training, organisation, and political education, making the PLA a more effective army. It later became the main force in the civil war and was crucial in the CCP’s eventual victory.
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From 1949, the new government introduced nationwide education reforms that required boys and girls to attend school on equal terms. The CCP banned discrimination in enrolment, expanded primary schooling in rural areas, and promoted literacy campaigns for women. These reforms made education a legal right for both sexes and helped undermine traditional barriers that kept girls out of school.
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After retreating to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek established the Republic of China government there and ruled under martial law. His regime was authoritarian, tightly controlling politics, limiting freedoms, and suppressing opposition during events like the White Terror. However, Chiang also oversaw land reforms and early economic policies that helped Taiwan begin its later economic growth. His rule laid the foundations for a strong, centralised state that remained under KMT control for decades.
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The CCP made education a priority, launching mass literacy campaigns, simplifying characters, and introducing Pinyin. Under the First Five-Year Plan, primary, secondary, and university enrolment expanded rapidly, following a Soviet model focused on science and technology. Progress was uneven, as urban areas advanced faster than rural ones and technical specialists gained higher status, but nationwide access to schooling improved significantly.
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After 1949, the CCP rebuilt industry by nationalising major factories and banks, ending inflation, and creating the People’s Bank of China (1951). At the same time, small private firms were allowed to operate under strict state control to avoid economic collapse. Between 1949 and 1953, private industry expanded but remained dependent on state contracts, keeping real power in the CCP's hands.
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After 1949, the CCP expanded rural health care by opening clinics, training young health workers, and promoting hygiene and disease reporting. Urban living standards improved through better housing and rising real wages, but rural progress lagged because resources were redirected to industrialisation. Despite these inequalities, public health advanced significantly, and national life expectancy increased from 36 to about 57 by the mid-1950s.
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The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was created in 1949 as a united front body bringing together the CCP and selected non-communist groups. It acted as China’s temporary national legislature before the 1954 Constitution. Although it appeared to represent multiple parties, it mainly served to legitimise CCP rule and build broad support for the new regime. After 1954, it became an advisory body with no real political power.
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The CPPCC passed the Common Programme, which served as the provisional constitution of the new PRC. It established the CCP’s leading role, outlined basic political and economic structures, and guided government action until the 1954 Constitution replaced it.
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After defeating the KMT in the Civil War, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. This marked the CCP’s complete victory and the establishment of a new Communist state. The KMT retreated to Taiwan, and the PRC became the central authority over mainland China, beginning major political, social, and economic transformations under Mao’s leadership.
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The PLA launched reunification campaigns to secure full control of China. They first took Guangdong, removing a major base of the KMT. In Tibet, which had operated independently since 1912, the CCP used negotiation and limited force to take control in 1950–1951, completing the PRC’s national reunification. They ended when the Seventeen Point Agreement was signed, and Tibet formally came under PRC control.
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The Government Administrative Council (GAC) was the temporary national government set up in 1949 by the CPPCC to run the new PRC until a full constitution was created in 1954. It acted as the main executive body, directing administration, economy, and policy under firm CCP control. Once the 1954 Constitution was introduced, the GAC was replaced by the State Council.
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Redistributed surplus land from landlords to poor and landless peasants. This boosted CCP support in the countryside and laid the groundwork for future collectivisation.
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One of the first major reforms of the PRC gave women and men equal legal status and banned arranged marriages, child marriages, concubinage, marriage payments, and interference in widow remarriage. All marriages had to be registered, and women gained equal rights to family property and the right to divorce. Emphasising free choice, monogamy, and gender equality, the law created a legal foundation for dismantling long-standing patriarchal traditions.
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It gave China a crucial alliance and economic support from the USSR. The Soviets provided loans, technical experts, and industrial assistance, while China agreed to cooperate closely with Moscow in defence and foreign policy. The treaty strengthened China’s position during the Korean War and laid the foundation for Soviet-backed industrialisation in the early 1950s.
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In the early 1950s, the CCP used rectification campaigns to force people to show complete loyalty to the Party. Citizens had to confess mistakes, study ideology, and reject “bourgeois” ideas. During the Korean War, the campaigns became harsher, encouraging people to denounce suspected opponents and creating widespread fear.
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During land reform, CCP organised “speak bitterness” meetings. Peasants publicly recounted abuses by landlords. They often escalated into violent struggle sessions. CCP tried to limit violence to protect agricultural production, but spread rapidly because peasants had resentment, the Korean War raised suspicion of “traitors,” and repression campaigns encouraged attacks on perceived enemies. Result was an explosion of long-suppressed anger as peasants targeted landlords who dominated rural life.
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Began when North Korea invaded South Korea, drawing in the United States and the United Nations. China entered the war in October 1950 to stop UN forces from reaching its border. The fighting settled into a stalemate until an armistice was signed in July 1953. For China, the war boosted national pride, strengthened the CCP’s authority, and justified intense political control and mobilisation at home.
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It targeted former KMT officials, police, spies, gangs, and religious societies—the groups the CCP saw as most likely to resist the new regime. New regulations allowed the CCP to label almost anyone a "counter-revolutionary". The campaign became a mass movement, with ordinary citizens encouraged to report and denounce others, creating intense fear. High numbers of forced confessions and suicides showed the psychological pressure this repression created.
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Targeted corruption, waste, and bureaucratic inefficiency within the CCP and the new government. It focused on Party officials, state administrators, police, and managers—especially those linked to old business networks whom the CCP saw as unreliable. Aimed to strengthen discipline, purge disloyal or corrupt members, and break remaining ties to pre-1949 capitalist elites. A tool to tighten Mao’s control over the Party.
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The government introduced a maternity leave policy granting women two months of paid leave. This reform recognised women’s rights in the workplace and encouraged female participation in the labour force, marking an important step in improving the social and economic status of women in the early PRC.
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It targeted Chinese intellectuals, forcing them to study Mao’s writings, confess “incorrect” ideas, and publicly show loyalty to the CCP. Universities and workplaces organised political study sessions and self-criticism meetings, pushing intellectuals to abandon independent thinking. The campaign tightened CCP control over education, culture, and research, reducing the risk of elite criticism of the new regime.
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Targeted urban business owners and aimed to weaken the bourgeoisie while bringing private industry under firm state control. It focused on five “evils”: theft of state property, fraud, bribery, tax evasion, and leaking economic secrets. Workers encouraged to investigate employers, forcing businessmen to confess to wrongdoing through public self-criticisms and intense pressure. It destroyed the independence of the urban business class and allowed the CCP to extend control over major industries.
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Mao established the State Planning Commission, led by Gao Gang, following Soviet advice to prepare China’s first national Five-Year Plan. However, China’s heavy involvement in the Korean War reduced available resources and delayed major investment, slowing the start of large-scale industrial planning.
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Was a major political purge in which senior leader Gao Gang tried to challenge the authority of Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai by building his own power base in the northeast. When Mao learned that Gao was plotting to replace top leaders, he denounced him as a threat to Party unity. Gao was removed from all posts in late 1953 and committed suicide in 1954 while under investigation. The affair showed that Mao would not tolerate internal rivals and helped strengthen centralised control within the CCP.
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The CCP declared that China had completed its initial recovery phase—land reform, limited private enterprise, and cooperation with capitalists—and was now ready to move into full socialism. This shift meant expanding heavy industry, accelerating nationalisation, and preparing the countryside for agricultural collectivisation.
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Granted women the legal right to vote and to hold public office in the PRC. This reform extended political equality to women for the first time in Chinese history and reinforced the CCP’s commitment to gender equality as part of its broader programme of social transformation.
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Focused on rapid industrialisation and turning China into a socialist, centrally planned economy. With strong Soviet assistance, the CCP prioritised heavy industry such as steel, coal, machinery, and transportation. Urban areas grew quickly, and industrial output rose sharply, showing early success. The plan neglected agriculture and consumer goods, creating shortages and widening the gap between cities and the countryside.
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First step of the Land Reform Act, first step toward collectivisation. Peasant families kept their private plots but worked together by sharing labour, tools, and animals during busy seasons, a practice similar to traditional village cooperation. By mid-1953, about 40% of households had joined, rising to 65% by early 1955, showing broad acceptance of this mild and familiar form of collective farming.
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Second stage land reform. Moved beyond Mutual Aid Teams toward larger collective farming. Land remained privately owned, but households pooled their plots, farmed collectively, received rent plus a small private plot. Described as voluntary, Party officials pushed peasants to join. By 1953–54 only about 15% of households had entered APCs. Grain output rose slowly. These problems worried Mao, who believed collectivisation was moving too slowly and risked allowing rural capitalism to re-emerge.
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The government outlined its plan to shift China from a mixed economy to socialism. Mao argued that rapid industrial growth had to come first to supply the machinery needed for future collectivised farming, while collectivisation would later provide the stable food surpluses required for industry. Because of this, the CCP planned to transform industry and agriculture together as linked parts of one socialist project.
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The CCP literary theorist and editor Feng Xuefeng was dismissed after publishing an article that the Party judged “too individualistic,” suggesting he valued personal expression over political purpose. He was labelled a “rightist,” marking the beginning of a new cultural crackdown. Feng’s downfall warned all writers and artists that creative independence would not be tolerated and that loyalty to Party ideology was mandatory.
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The Politburo called for a faster expansion of Agricultural Producers’ Cooperatives, pushing local officials to increase membership more quickly than planned. APC numbers rose sharply, but this sudden acceleration created serious dissatisfaction in many areas, as peasants felt pressured to give up private farming before they were ready.
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Targeted writers, artists, and cultural figures who resisted full ideological control. After the Gao Gang Affair, the CCP turned to these groups because many wanted creative independence and criticised Party interference in literature and art. To Mao, this was “bourgeois idealism” and a threat to ideological unity. "Art must serve the revolution, not the artist".
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The 1954 Constitution was the first full constitution of the PRC and formally established China as a socialist state under CCP leadership. It created a structure with the National People’s Congress as the highest authority and confirmed Mao Zedong’s dominant political role. Although it appeared democratic on paper, real power remained firmly in the hands of the CCP, making the constitution more symbolic than genuinely limiting government authority.
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CCP targeted the literary critic Hu Feng, an early Communist supporter who argued that writers needed creative independence rather than strict obedience to socialist realism. After he criticised Party cultural policy, Zhou Yang attacked him. Mao then personally denounced him as a counter-revolutionary, leading to his dismissal and long imprisonment until 1979. Hu Feng’s fall showed that even loyal Communists could be destroyed if they challenged the Party’s control over culture and ideology.
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China’s trade unions—organisations that traditionally protect workers’ rights and working conditions—were fully taken over by the state. Instead of representing workers, they became instruments for enforcing CCP policy, promoting production targets, and maintaining political discipline in factories.
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Mao claimed the Party was slowing down peasants who supposedly wanted faster collectivisation. He called for a “high tide of socialism,” insisting that all rural households should join APCs by 1960. When most of the Central Committee disagreed, Mao bypassed them and took his message directly to provincial and regional leaders at the National People’s Congress, pushing the country toward rapid collectivisation.
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By November 1955, 60% of peasant households were in APCs, and nearly 2 million cooperatives existed—four times the number from mid-1955. Resistance was limited because families now received income from both rent and work points. Impressed by this rapid growth, Mao declared the “victory of socialism” in the countryside at the end of 1955 and set new goals: complete the semi-socialist stage by 1956 and move toward full collectivisation by 1960.
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Mao’s pressure campaign worked: his push for rapid collectivisation forced the Party leadership to accept his position. In October 1955, the Central Committee formally ratified Mao’s plan, committing the CCP to accelerate collectivisation nationwide and setting the stage for the transition to higher-stage cooperatives.
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A major CCP purge aimed at removing “hidden counter-revolutionaries” within the Party and state. Began by targeting supposed supporters of Gao Gang and officials with “incorrect” political attitudes; the deeper purpose was to reassert Party control over the growing number of specialists, economic planners, and technical experts emerging under the First Five-Year Plan.
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In March 1955, worried that the rapid spread of APCs was harming food production, the State Council ordered a temporary slowdown in collectivisation. In May 1955, the Central Committee restarted the campaign, but at a more cautious pace, trying to expand APCs without causing further disruption in the countryside.
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The Hungarian Revolt, in which students and intellectuals helped lead an uprising against a communist government, alarmed CCP leaders. It strengthened fears that too much freedom of expression in China might trigger similar unrest, making the Party more suspicious of intellectuals during the Hundred Flowers Campaign.
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By early 1956, Mao, Zhou Enlai, and other senior CCP leaders believed China was nearing the end of its “transition to socialism.” Zhou described this moment as a “high tide of socialist transformation,” showing that confidence in rapid socialist progress was widespread across the Party.
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CCP leaders believed socialism was secure and allowed limited openness, encouraged by Zhou Enlai, China needed intellectuals. Mao agreed with slogan “let a hundred flowers bloom,” signalling tolerance of diverse ideas. The policy was approved at the Eighth Party Congress, and Mao expanded it, urging “constructive” criticism. Universities, newspapers, and students then began openly criticising bureaucracy, corruption, censorship, and inequality, marking the full start of the campaign.
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CCP merged lower-stage cooperatives into much larger Higher APCs, each containing 200–300 families, to create a fully socialist farming system and free rural labour for industry. By 1957, nearly all land was collectively owned, and peasants were paid only through work points, increasing CCP control but causing resentment and administrative problems. Managing was hard; farm output in 1956–57 did not meet targets. Mao lowered grain taxes and allowed peasants to use more of their private plots.
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Mao’s speech rejected the Soviet focus on heavy industry. Argued China’s poverty could be turned into an advantage. He claimed that massive projects could be built with human labour rather than machines, and that China’s huge population could create the surplus needed for rapid development. Mao believed this approach would revive the Yan’an spirit of sacrifice and collectivism and push back against growing urban comfort and bureaucracy, laying ideological foundations for the Great Leap Forward.
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The CCP ended the Hundred Flowers Campaign, restored strict censorship, and launched a new mass movement aimed at punishing those who had spoken too freely, signalling a full return to tight political control.
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Mao claimed that “rightists” were misusing their new freedoms to attack socialism and the Party. What had begun as an invitation for intellectuals to offer helpful criticism quickly turned into a harsh crackdown, as the CCP targeted and punished anyone whose comments were judged politically unacceptable.
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Mao reversed the Hundred Flowers policy and launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign, arguing that critics were attacking socialism. The CCP reinstated censorship and began punishing those who had spoken out. In September, Mao expanded the purge to include cautious officials, and by 1958, over one million Party members had been expelled or sent to rural re-education. The campaign silenced dissent and warned that criticism of the Party, especially Mao, would not be tolerated.
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During the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the CCP expanded “re-education through labour,” sending targeted intellectuals and officials to laojiao camps, which soon became part of the harsher laogai system modelled on Stalin’s Gulag. Deng Xiaoping supervised the system’s growth, making it a permanent tool of state control. The repression also hit members of the remaining “democratic parties,” with about 12,000 purged and sent to labour camps in 1957, leaving these parties powerless and symbolic.
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The CCP retreated from the excesses of the communes. Leaders agreed to scale back unrealistic targets and reduce the pressure for rapid expansion, lowering production goals and acknowledging that the Great Leap Forward had already pushed rural systems beyond their limits.
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By late 1958, criticism of Mao’s Great Leap Forward grew inside the Party. Officials argued that targets were unrealistic, communes had been formed too quickly, and planning was weak or missing entirely. Most communes lacked the administrative capacity to run schools, canteens, and services, while chaotic labour allocation and falling food production showed the system was already breaking down.
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Growing problems in the communes forced Mao to slow down the abolition of rural markets. Senior leaders warned that removing markets too quickly was worsening food shortages and disrupting local supply, so Mao temporarily agreed to ease the pace of radical reforms.
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As problems with the Great Leap Forward became undeniable, Mao offered to step down as State Chairman, arguing that others should take over day-to-day responsibilities. Although he kept his dominant position in the Party, this gesture reflected growing criticism of his policies and marked the beginning of a partial retreat from direct state management.
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Were briefly introduced in mid-1958 as part of the Great Leap Forward but proved unworkable and were abandoned by December 1958, marking a rapid retreat from Mao’s attempt to extend commune life into the cities.
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Was originally designed to expand industry and improve living standards, but Mao had already rejected the slow Soviet model and wanted a faster, mass approach. After removing opposition in the Anti-Rightist Campaign, he replaced the official plan with the Great Leap Forward, arguing China could industrialise the countryside and overtake Britain in 15 years. The Great Leap Forward became the Second Five-Year Plan, turning into a radical economic-social experiment that led China toward disaster.
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During the Great Leap Forward, Mao pushed for millions of small backyard furnaces to boost steel output, believing mass labour could replace industrial expertise. Peasants and urban workers melted tools, furniture, and scrap metal to meet inflated targets, but most of the steel produced was unusable. The campaign wasted huge amounts of labour and resources, damaged agriculture by pulling workers off the fields, and became one of the most costly failures of the GLF.
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At the second Zhengzhou Meeting, the CCP scaled back the commune system by restoring greater authority to smaller production units. This retreat acknowledged that giant communes were unmanageable and that decentralising power was necessary to stabilise rural administration during the crisis of the Great Leap Forward.
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A major uprising erupted in Tibet, fuelled partly by resentment toward the CCP’s 1950s land reforms and growing fears of Chinese control. The revolt was crushed by the PLA, but the instability further weakened Mao’s standing at a moment when the failures of the Great Leap Forward were becoming increasingly evident.
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Mao publicly admitted that backyard steel production had been a “great catastrophe.” This rare acknowledgment underscored the scale of the failure and showed how much credibility Mao had lost over one of the Great Leap Forward’s central policies.
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Mao formally resigned as State Chairman, and Liu Shaoqi was elected to replace him. Although Mao stepped back from day-to-day government duties, he kept his position as Party Chairman, ensuring he still held ultimate political authority. His resignation reflected rising criticism of the Great Leap Forward but did not reduce his dominant influence within the CCP.
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At Lushan, Defence Minister Peng privately criticised the GLF, arguing unrealistic targets, chaotic construction projects, and Maoist zeal had caused the crisis. He also warned that GLF failures weakened PLA damaged relations with USSR. Many leaders quietly agreed, none dared support after Mao threatened to raise a peasant army if the Party sided with Peng. Mao purged Peng, replaced him with Lin Biao. Launched a second Anti-Rightist campaign inside the CCP. Lushan= victory for Mao.
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Launched immediately after the Lushan Conference in July–August 1959, Mao’s second Anti-Rightist Campaign targeted officials he accused of supporting “right opportunist” ideas. Running into 1960, it purged critics within the Party, including senior figures such as Chen Yun, and reasserted Mao’s political authority at a moment when his policies were under intense scrutiny.
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Great Leap Forward collapsed, creating the “Three Bitter Years” of severe shortages and hardship. Unrealistic targets, poor machinery, revived urban communes, and collapsing industrial output caused chaos. The crisis worsened when the USSR withdrew all aid in 1960, leaving many projects incomplete. Although most resources were wasted, a few small local industries survived and later shaped rural development. This period turned the GLF into a national disaster and badly weakened Mao’s authority.
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China experienced severe chaos and hardship as the rapid and unrealistic policies of the Great Leap Forward collapsed. Food shortages, mismanagement, and breakdowns in production showed that Mao’s radical pace was unsustainable. The crisis caused massive social and economic disruption and significantly weakened Mao’s political authority within the CCP.
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Worsening crisis of the “Three Bitter Years” openly acknowledged. Senior leaders such as Liu and Deng blamed the disaster mainly on policy failure rather than natural causes, and even Mao had admitted shortly beforehand that the rush into communes had created “chaos on a grand scale.” Meeting confirmed Liu Shaoqi as Mao's replacement, while Mao remained Party Chairman but withdrew from day-to-day government. Lushan marked a shift in power toward the moderates and Mao’s partial loss of authority.
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Agriculture collapsed under the GLF as labour was diverted to industrial projects, leaving crops unharvested and ruined. Local cadres sent wildly exaggerated grain figures, leading the state to raise procurement quotas and remove grain from already starving areas. Severe natural disasters in 1959–60, affected 60% of farmland, worsened the crisis, and grain output fell. With communes sealed off and peasants unable to flee, famine spread nationwide, killing an estimated 30 million people.
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USSR suddenly withdrew all aid to China, recalled around 1,400 Soviet experts, and stopped supplying spare parts. This crippled many factories that depended on Soviet machinery, left over 250 industrial projects unfinished, and sharply worsened the economic crisis of the Great Leap Forward. The breakdown also deepened Mao’s hostility toward Khrushchev and accelerated the emerging Sino–Soviet split.
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The centre-right moderates—Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, and Chen Yun—had taken control of policy-making. With Mao sidelined after the failures of the Great Leap Forward, these leaders steered China toward more pragmatic economic recovery and away from radical experimentation.
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Food production did not return to pre–Great Leap Forward levels until 1965, four years after the famine ended. The slow recovery reflected the deep damage caused by labour diversion, commune mismanagement, and forced procurement during the GLF. Only after policies were scaled back, production teams regained control, and farming practices stabilised did agricultural output finally rise above 1957 levels, marking the end of the worst food crisis in PRC history.
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Although the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962) largely failed, some small local industries created during it survived. After 1976, these workshops developed into Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs), which became a major force in rural industrialisation. This shows that the GLF unintentionally laid foundations for later decentralised economic growth.